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Post-it Notes vs. Copy-Inhibited CDs

Posted by timothy on from the look-forward-to-computer-yard-sales dept.

rjoseph writes "MacUser is running an article about how the new Celine Dion CD A New Day Has Come with copy protection mechanisms to prevent the CD from being played on a PC not only won't play on an iMac, but it will lock the CD tray (so it can't be removed) and fubar the firmware (so the machine can't be rebooted), effectivley killing the iMac. Ouch." We mentioned this interesting experiment in consumer relations last month as well, but now it's getting noticed a lot more. However, emkman writes: "What was first thought to be an April Fool's joke, now appears to be true. Some Audio CD protection schemes such as Cactus DATA Shield 100/200, KeyAudio, and perhaps others may be defeated by invalidating the outer ring of the CD with a black marker or post-it sticky note. www.chip.de has their report in German, here is a translation."

22 of 828 comments (clear)

  1. Oh for goodness sakes! by JediTrainer · · Score: 0, Informative

    The firmware doesn't go foobar. The iMac isn't destroyed. Most CD drives have a mechanical (manual) eject that can be hit with a pen or paper clip. In that case you can just pull the CD out and you're fine.

    In other cases, perhaps you might need to get creative to get that CD out. Perhaps you need to pull the drive apart - who knows. The point is, the article made it clear that there is no permanent damage to the machine. Get the CD out, and everything goes back to normal.

    --

    You can accomplish anything you set your mind to. The impossible just takes a little longer.
    1. Re:Oh for goodness sakes! by Dephex+Twin · · Score: 5, Informative
      Most CD drives have a mechanical (manual) eject that can be hit with a pen or paper clip. In that case you can just pull the CD out and you're fine.

      The new iMac doesn't have any manual way to do it.
      In other cases, perhaps you might need to get creative to get that CD out. Perhaps you need to pull the drive apart - who knows. The point is, the article made it clear that there is no permanent damage to the machine.

      Oh of course. All you have to do is dismantle the computer and void your warranty to get the CD out? Man, some people are just whiners!

      mark
      --

      If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe. -- Carl Sagan
    2. Re:Oh for goodness sakes! by foobar104 · · Score: 5, Informative
      In other cases, perhaps you might need to get creative to get that CD out. Perhaps you need to pull the drive apart - who knows.

      Apple knows. You have three non-pull-apart options.
      • Hold the mouse button down while the Mac boots. This causes the firmware to eject the CDROM before it even starts booting the OS.
      • Load Open Firmware (cmd-opt-O-F) and type "eject cd."
      • Hold down the X key while booting the Mac. This forces Open Firmware to load OS X from the system disk, if there's a kernel present. Then use iTunes to eject the CD.
    3. Re:Oh for goodness sakes! by grung0r · · Score: 2, Informative

      I could be wrong, but I think that the imac cd drive violates the orange book standard. I'm pretty sure that all CD-rom drives must have a manual eject button.

  2. This explains how to get the drive to open... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    try this Apple tech info before hitting the panic button...

  3. For everyone saying "I don't like Celine Dion" by Gaccm · · Score: 5, Informative

    The soundtrack of Episode 2 seems to be protected in such a way also.

    --

    Only dead fish swim with the stream...
  4. Not a big deal, folks... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Apple tells how to get the job done in this tech note...not to worry.

  5. Apple Responds w/ KBA by mprindle · · Score: 5, Informative

    Hello all,

    Apple has released KnowledgeBase Article #106882, Cannot Eject Copy Protected Audio Disc , to adress the problem with the cd's getting locked into the drive.

    "You may be unable to eject certain copy-protected audio discs, which resemble Compact Discs (CD) but technically are not. Some computers start up to a gray screen after a copy protected disc has been left in the computer."

    1. Re:Apple Responds w/ KBA by imadork · · Score: 4, Informative
      Yeah, it's the fine print on the bottom that's priceless:

      CD audio discs that incorporate copyright protection technologies do not adhere to published Compact Disc standards. Apple designs its CD drives to support media that conforms to such standards. Apple computers are not designed to support copyright protected media that do not conform to such standards. Therefore, any attempt to use non standard discs with Apple CD drives will be considered a misapplication of the product. Under the terms of Apple's One-Year Limited Warranty, AppleCare Protection Plan, or other AppleCare agreement any misapplication of the product is excluded from Apple's repair coverage.

      How do you like them apples?

    2. Re:Apple Responds w/ KBA by Daniel · · Score: 3, Informative

      But, umm, nobody is talking about exploding CDs. Except maybe you.

      Daniel

      --
      Hurry up and jump on the individualist bandwagon!
    3. Re:Apple Responds w/ KBA by foobar104 · · Score: 5, Informative

      This is really Ford vs. Firestone for the computer industry.

      You have got to be kidding me. Are you a troll, or what? That kind of wildly disproportionate comparison casts your whole post in an unflattering light.

      Pioneer - for engineering a drive where it is possible with the wrong combination of bits or read errors to completely lock the drive and ruin the firmware.

      First and most important: the idea that these CDs are ruining firmware seems to have come from the mind of one sloppy reporter at MacUser UK. I quote from the (f'ing dreadful) article:

      "As we reported last month, Celine's latest offering - A New Day Has Come - features copy-protection to prevent it being played and duplicated in a PC, and that same copy-protection was believed to be capable of damaging the PC's firmware. It seems that this is definitely the case, as once the CD is inserted into a new iMac it cannot be removed and the machine cannot be restarted."

      (Emphasis mine, obviously.)

      The actual fact is that the CD, once inserted, cannot be read by the Mac. If you try to reboot the Mac, something-- the OF boot loader, or something-- gets wedged trying to read the CD. Hell, maybe the drive is wedging the bus or something. Point is, if you can get the CD out, your Mac is just fine.

      To remove the CD from the Mac, reboot, and hold down the mouse button during the boot chime. The Mac (actually Open Firmware) then spits out the CDROM and boots normally. This has been true since long, long ago. I think I remember getting a bad floppy disk out of a Mac 512K or SE that way.

      If, for an unknown reason, holding down the mouse button doesn't work, then yeah, the drive has to be removed and the CD manually extracted. A person has to twist the eject cog with a tweaker or whatever. That's what the (f'ing dreadful) article was referring to when it said that the computer may have to be sent in for repair. Just for the record, I haven't heard of any instances firsthand where holding down the mouse button during power up failed to eject the CD.

      So in summary, the idea that these CDs are ruining firmware is complete, total, utter bullshit. So let's just drop that one right now.

      Apple - for engineering a machine with a soft eject and no aesthetically-challenging hard backup. Mr. Jobs, would a pinhole really have offended your out-of-wack perfectionism that much?

      I'll say it again: it's a fucking Pioneer drive. Apple didn't design it. They didn't build it. And they didn't decide whether to put an "eject" button on it.

      So then why not a hotkey during boot to eject the media or similar?

      Apple has published not one but three non-mechanical options for getting the CD out, including the hold-down-the-button trick. The hold-down-the-button trick is very well known among Mac users, and all three of them are documented thoroughly. The fact that you are unaware of them is not evidence of negligence on Apple's part.

      God, I can't believe you got so up in arms with so little information. At least get a little information before flying off the handle next time.

  6. Hold the mouse button down by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    If you hold the mouse button down while turning a Mac on it will eject the CD from the drive before it boots up.

  7. Re:Episode 2 CD (Jango Fett cover+Bonus Track) by Galvatron · · Score: 2, Informative

    Is it labled as not playing in a PC? Apparently there should be a disclaimer if it is protected. If you don't see one, maybe there are multiple versions, or the original article is wrong. Maybe only the British version? The site's located in the UK.

    --
    "The question of whether a computer can think is no more interesting than that of whether a submarine can swim" -EWD
  8. Only the UK version! by Galvatron · · Score: 4, Informative

    Alright, I feel like an idiot because I've posted three replies on this subject now, but after checking amazon.com and amazon.co.uk, it appears that this only applies to the version sold in the UK. So British buyers beware, but the rest of us are okay (though if the Amazonian reviewers are to be trusted, apparently it is a pretty weak effort compared to Williams' prior work).

    --
    "The question of whether a computer can think is no more interesting than that of whether a submarine can swim" -EWD
  9. Way to eject CD on new iMac by pinkpineapple · · Score: 5, Informative

    You need to restart the system and just after the chime, leave the mouse button pressed until the media gets ejected. No manual way but a work around for people who like me got cought with the soundtrack of Episode 2.

    PPA, the girl next door

    --
    -- I feel better now. Thanks for asking.
  10. Re:Class Action Lawsuit! (Sign-Up Here) by anonicon · · Score: 5, Informative
    Hey,
    If you are a U.S. resident (you don't have to be a citizen) and want to be part of a class-action lawsuit, go here:
    http://www.fatchucks.com/z3.cd.submit.html

    after you buy a known corrupt CD (one with a red star next to it):
    http://www.fatchucks.com/z3.cd.html


    I will personally forward your info to the group of lawfirms who are already planning a class-action against the record industry. If you have any questions about this class-action or anything else, write me at chuck@fatchucks.com.


    Peace.

  11. Re:Episode 2 CD (Jango Fett cover+Bonus Track) by anonicon · · Score: 2, Informative

    So far the soundtrack to Episode II is being corrupted in Europe:
    http://www.fatchucks.com/z3.cd.starwars.soundtrack . tml

    but there have been no reports out of the Ameircas. Of course, time will tell if this holds up.

  12. Note the culprit, folks... by MsGeek · · Score: 3, Informative
    Apple is aware of record companies, including but not limited to Sony, that use such copy protection in new audio disc releases.

    SONY.

    Sony, Sony, Sony.

    Now do you understand why I fsckn can't stand them????

    If there is an Intellectual Property fracas, 9 out of 10 times Sony's right in the middle of it. Burn in Hell, Akio Morita!

    --
    Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power multiplied.
  13. Re:Didn't the original post say you CAN'T reboot? by foobar104 · · Score: 3, Informative

    All these three options require rebooting. However, the original post said that this CD by artist of little talent makes your computer unable to reboot!?!?!?!

    The MacUser UK article that inspired this thread is simply terrible. And yeah, it said that the CDs in question would leave the Mac unable to boot. But what was meant was that the Mac would be unable to boot all the way up to multiuser mode successfully.

    In order to force-eject the CD-- using two out of the three methods, that is-- you only have to get the Mac up to Open Firmware. That's all in hardware, so the presence of a bad disc won't affect it.

    Seems like most people don't even know that they've got a really sophisticated boot PROM underneath their Macs. Hold down cmd-opt-O-F (that's "oh" and "eff") right after powering on some time to see how it all works.

  14. The drive isn't failing (was Re:Apple Responds w/ by Simon+Brooke · · Score: 5, Informative
    I'm damn well suggesting that a drive shouldn't fail when you put in something that is PHYSICALLY COMPATIBLE with a CD. Sure, I don't expect it to be able to handle a cheese sandwich or a sanding disc, but a correctly-sized piece of plastic should be fine.

    The drive isn't failing. It's doing what it's suposed to do. It's reading the equivalent of the boot sector of the CD, and attempting to boot the software on the CD. The software on the CD is then doing deliberately malicious things to the computer. Any computer that's capable of booting or automatically running software from any media is vulnerable to attack from what is in effect a boot sector virus.

    It does seem to me that Sony are sailing very close to some legal winds here. It would not seem to me to be so much a problem if the automatic-load-and-go program opened a window on the Mac screen saying 'this disc cannot be played on Macintosh computers', but this deliberate malicious damage seems to me quite serious.

    Mind you, it's arguable that anyone who buys a Celine Dion record deserves all they get...

    --
    I'm old enough to remember when discussions on Slashdot were well informed.
  15. Re:Class Action Lawsuit! by Gibbys+Box+of+Trix · · Score: 3, Informative

    According to this post, it appears that the new iMacs lack a manual release hole for the cd-rom drive and the disk has to be released by 'manually winding the cogs' or returning the machine for professional repair.

  16. Re:Class Action Lawsuit! by monkeydo · · Score: 3, Informative

    Not according to Apple, "Some computers, such as the iMac (Flat Panel), Power Mac G4 Cube, and certain models of Power Mac G4 (QuickSilver or later), may not have a user-accessible eject hole."

    They may have an eject hole, but it isn't accesible. There are however other ways of removing the disk.

    --
    Si vis pacem, para bellum
    The only thing more annoying than a Libertarian is an (un|mis)informed Libertarian